61. Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-One
Kya
I had never feared staring into the face of death. I had always walked alongside it. But when those I loved were on that line with me, I was terrified.
At the sound of his gruff voice, Malina and I whipped around, our weapons raised, to find Daegel standing at the edge of the Rip.
He didn’t have his hooded cloak this time, so I was able to see him more clearly.
The blonde of his hair was short in length.
It was cropped close to his head on the sides, while slightly longer on top.
Those cobalt eyes, like the dark waters of the sea, were striking against the paleness of his freckled skin.
I blinked in wonder at how someone so alluring could be filled with corruption, rotted to the core.
We hadn’t seen him when we had darted from boulder to boulder, not when he was behind one himself.
And beside him, with labored breathing and a bloodied face, Nikan stood with wide blue eyes filled with dread.
His hands were bound, but he wasn’t gagged this time.
My heart dropped at how close to the edge he was.
One slip, one small push, and he’d be lost to the depths of the chasm forever.
Through the bond, I felt Ryker’s anxiousness at feeling my own trepidation .
My eyes flicked between my brother and the dark wielder. Daegel’s lips spread into a rueful smirk. He opened his mouth to speak, but Nikan beat him to it.
“Mal, get Kya out of here. You don’t understand what he is. What he’s capable—”
Daegel struck Nikan in the jaw, and blood spurted from his mouth as his head was whipped to the side from the impact. Malina and I advanced. I drew my magic to me, snaking it down my hand to my arrow.
“Now now. There’s no need for that.” Daegel held his hand up to us, the blackness of his dark magic swirling around his palm and fingers. We stopped but kept our weapons trained on him, my arrow, glowing with the energy, aimed right at his heart.
“Let him go,” I demanded. I would kill him where he stood but he was too close to Nikan. If he started to fall back into the Rip, he could take Nikan with him.
“Surrender yourself to me and tell your friend to drop her weapons, then I’ll release him.”
I didn’t believe him for a second. Even if I did surrender, he would just kill them eventually anyway. I didn’t say anything, just narrowed my eyes in challenge. I could hurt him and he was outnumbered.
Daegel huffed. “I would expect nothing less from a fierce little thing like you.”
He placed his hand on Nikan’s shoulder, not breaking eye contact with me. With a wink, he squeezed and there was a crack right before Nikan’s howl. Even with how strong our bones were, Daegel broke his shoulder like he was cracking an egg.
“Let’s make sure you behave,” Daegel said with a malicious grin. He pushed Nikan backwards until the back of his feet were at the edge of the Rip, the rocks chipping away beneath his heels down into the endless abyss.
“Wait! Stop!” Malina screamed as we both advanced .
“Ah ah ah. That’s far enough.” He held his hand out and we froze. The dark magic from his hand billowed down to the ground. It blackened the sand in a semi-circle around him and Nikan, expanding out toward us.
My breathing quickened and my heartrate spiked.
“Godsdamnit. What’s happening?” Ryker’s voice demanded. I ignored him, too focused on what was before me.
Malina and I leapt back, away from the Glaev as it slowly crept outward, until it stopped. It had created a barrier around Daegel and Nikan, too far for any of us to jump across. Nikan was trapped between the Glaev and the Rip. My mind quickly reeled on solutions to this new problem.
I could use my energy to counteract the Glaev so we could get to him or I could shift my wings and carry him across it.
But I didn’t trust that my wings were strong enough, since I was weak from using so much of my magic earlier. It would take more time for me to replenish my reserves. Odarum was right. I should have listened to him. I should have worked harder.
“Talk to me,” Ryker pleaded.
“I’ll make this easy for you, Diamond.” Daegel stepped on to the Glaev, walking slowly toward me with his arms held out to his sides.
I eyed every step, every motion. I quickly glanced at Malina and in a blink, we shared a knowing look. She started to move away from me.
“Come with me willingly, and I might let your friends live.” I bared my teeth as Daegel continued. “Or you don’t and I’ll take you anyway and kill your friends where they stand.”
I pulled my bow back a little farther, adjusting the position to keep it trained on his heart. He noticed this and stopped just at the edge of the Glaev barrier.
“What’s it going to be?” he gritted through his teeth. “Hurry up. I don’t have all night and neither does he.”
My eyes snapped to Nikan when he yelled. The Glaev around him was slowly closing in. He had minutes at best before he either backed up off the side of the Rip, or was consumed by the Glaev.
“Fuck. You.” I whipped my head to Malina who was on the other side of the Glaev circle. “Now!”
I released my arrow and slammed my eyes shut, turning my head away.
Malina wielded a beam of light aimed for Daegel, bright enough to blind if looking straight at it.
Nikan knew this too, he would have shielded his eyes as best as he could but I hoped that Daegel was distracted enough that he would look directly at her.
I thrust out my hand and poured my magic into the Glaev, trying to create a small path through it from Malina to Nikan.
Daegel grunted and cursed. Malina’s light dimmed enough for me to open my eyes.
Daegel was holding a hand over his eyes and the other gripping the wood of my white feathered, non-laced, arrow that had struck his shoulder.
I pushed more of my magic out as quickly as I could, but I felt myself weakening even more.
“Kya!” Ryker shouted down the bond.
“Busy!” I snapped, and he remained silent but I could feel a wave of frustration.
Daegel snarled, and I turned my attention back to him. He glared at me, ripping the arrow from his muscle like it was nothing more than an inconvenient thorn and tossed it to the blackened ground.
I threw my hand up toward him, redirecting the energy just in time to block the magic he wielded at me. The two magics collided with one another in a fantastical eruption of equally opposing forces that flared out from the epicenter, blocking my view of Daegel on the other side.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Malina dive and roll out of the way of the dark magic launched at her, landing right where she had stood. Dropping my bow, I thrust my other hand toward the enclosing Glaev around Nikan, trying to give him more time.
Malina grunted as she leapt out of the way of another attack, and I closed my eyes again as she wielded another beam of light toward Daegel.
His magic sputtered against mine, and I took the opportunity to turn invisible and jump out of the way before his magic came at me again.
My vision was beginning to turn spotty from utilizing so much of my magic.
Sand sprayed up from the impact of my boots sliding across the surface, the sound giving away my location—another thing Odarum had warned me about.
I couldn’t hold both, the invisibility and the energy, so I switched back and forth between the two.
I zig-zagged through the sand, attacking Daegel with my energy and creating the growing path through the Glaev while I was visible, and disappearing from sight to jump out of the way of his own attacks.
With him concentrating on me, Malina was able to make headway toward Nikan while using her light to blind Daegel as best she could, but that meant that I had to constantly use my magic—draining what little reserve I had left.
I blinked away unconsciousness, trying desperately to hit the dark wielder.
If I could just get close enough, I would be able to land a blow but I couldn’t, not while he remained on the Glaev beneath him.
It took everything I had to concentrate on my magic.
Nikan and Malina were shouting and screaming, but I couldn’t hear over the roar of Ryker’s distressed voice filling my head and tearing my soul.
I couldn’t see between Malina’s light beams and the bursts of mine and Daegel’s magic.
I couldn’t feel Daegel through the Glaev .
It was too much. Everything was shutting down.
I had to let go of my invisibility, needing to save as much strength as I could to use my energy to create the path and fight against Daegel. But it wasn’t enough.
I had to concentrate all of my magic, my energy gifted to me by my Spirit Guardian, at the dark wielder, leaving Nikan stranded at the edge of the Rip with the Glaev closing in. I pushed forward. With one final surge, the last of what I had left, I thrust it at Daegel.
The remnants of my depleted magic trickled from my fingertips. I tried… I tried so, so hard to keep standing, to keep pushing forward, to reach the Glaev where Daegel stood.
But he got to me first, just as the last swirling tendrils of my magic died out.
Daegel leapt through the air and tackled me as we rolled on the ground in a frenzy of strikes and kicks. I managed to stand but I was too weak. He stood, pinning my back to his chest with his arm around my neck in a hold that I couldn’t break free from.
I fought and thrashed against him with the last bits of my strength, pushing us back and back and back.
“What is he doing to you?” Ryker screamed.
“Malina! The kiss!” I bellowed into the night.
I didn’t fear death.
“Shh, my shadow. It’s okay.” I caressed down the bond, sending every piece of my heart and soul to my mate.
Malina appeared a moment later. My bow and an arrow with the black feathers of the poison-laced tip aimed at us.
“Back off! It’s over!” Daegel roared. With his hands occupied, he couldn’t use his magic.
I pushed back with a grunt, using all my strength. Our feet stumbled on the rocky ground beneath us. Malina’s eyes were wide, her face pale with dread.
“Say it, Ryker,” I whispered.
I pushed again.
“What?”
“Say it.” It was a plea, begging to hear it one last time. Daegel and Malina and Nikan were still screaming, but I couldn’t hear them.
Daegel’s arm tightened around my neck, and the rock crunched under my boots.
Push.
“You belong to me.” His voice was apprehensive.
I stared into Malina’s wet brown eyes, saying all that I needed to say with a simple look that I knew she would understand.
“I promised that no other would take me from you,” I said to Ryker.
Push.
“I meant it.”
“For them.” I mouthed silently to my sister with a small loving smile. “For us.”
“Little gem…” Ryker’s voice trembled.
Push.
“And I’m sorry that I’m the one who’s taking me from you.”
“Kya—Kya please!” he begged.
Push.
“I love you Ryker — ”
“KYA!” he bellowed.
Daegel’s boot caught against the crumbling rock at the edge.
Malina pulled back the bow string, a tear streaked down her beautiful, olive-skinned cheek. Her mouth was moving, but I had tuned out everything except the sound of Ryker’s voice.
“—beyond the bond.”
I nodded to her subtly.
Malina let go. The arrow soared, singing through the night air .
“NO!” The last thing I heard was Ryker’s voice roaring down the bond.
The arrow pierced through my chest and right into Daegel’s.
With one final push, our bodies fell over the edge. I silently prayed to Kleio that she would save the ones I loved. I had completed her task. I looked up to the river in the starry sky one last time before the mists of the Rip took us.
No, I didn’t fear death. I feared fate.